BLUE STINGER
PREVIEW
Blue Stinger was one of the Dreamcast's
biggest game's in Japan earlier this year,
but intense camera problems lead to a
tremendous distaste for the title in the
eyes of many gamers. Personally, I
noticed the game's god-awful camera
positioning system from the moment I
started playing. It was so horrible that I
was surprised that the game had been
shipped at all given its unplayable state.
Activision,
coming off
of a
supposed
fix up of the
PlayStation
Tenchu
earlier this
year, has
stepped up to the same plate with Blue
Stinger and set about releasing a much
improved version of the game for
American gamers in time for the
Dreamcast's launch. The previewable
copy of the game that we've received,
while still incomplete, is already a
dramatic improvement over its Japanese
cousin.
New to this version are a
behind-the-shoulder camera system,
along with a first-person surveying
camera. These two systems replace the
horrid, uncontrollable, pre-determined
camera from the first version. The
behind-the-shoulder cam follows the
character you're currently controlling,
giving you sufficient view of the world
directly in front of you. Anyone who's
played the game's Japanese version will
tell you that one of its most horrid
features was how you'd often have to
make the characters run towards the
camera in order to move forward; the
new dynamic camera is a welcome
feature, as it's ALWAYS pointing in the
character 's forward-facing direction. The
first-person survey camera is also a
welcome feature in that it allows you to
look around at your surrounding while
remaining fixed. Yes, believe it or not, this
must-have feature was absent in the
Japanese version.
These new camera changes alone are
enough to elevate Blue Stinger to one of
the Dreamcast's must-have launch titles.
We'll be back with a review of Blue Stinger
as soon as we're given a reviewable copy.